Sunday, May 20, 2018

May 20 2018 “Come Holy Spirit, Come: Change Our World”

Today we celebrate Pentecost. The word “Pentecost” comes
from the Greek word for “fiftieth” meaning 50 days after the Jewish holiday of Passover. [ slide # 1 fifty days] Passover
is the time Christians know as Easter. Since our spiritual roots are both
Judaic and Christian, the Jewish holidays and the Christian holidays have
similar purposes and similar time schedules.

The Old Testament law requires [slide # 2Bible
scrolls] that men take the lead in making sure their family is
represented in at least three yearly festivals. These are holidays on which one
is to enjoy God, enjoy family and friends and neighbors and share a meal to celebrate
the harvest that God has provided.

The first legal holiday celebration is the Passover. [slide # 3 Happy Passover-
flowers] Passover is also called the Feast of unleavened bread which
celebrates the rescue from slavery in Egypt, when they left town quickly. They
planned to bring bread with them to eat on their journey because there were not
many places to buy bread. They baked it in a hurry. They did not put yeast in the
bread because they did not have time to let it rise. So their bread was more of
a flatbread or matzo. [
slide # 4 flatbread][slide # 5 matzo]Passover
was also the night that acknowledges that the angel of death passed over their homes, for which they were
grateful.

Christians celebrate the Passover, in a sense, every
communion Sunday. For Christians, every Sunday is a celebration of God’s resurrection
power, and deliverance and mercy. [slide # 6 Passover – wine] We celebrate Jesus delivering us
from the slavery of sin. Passover is celebrated once a year by our Jewish
brothers and sisters in March or April, often close to our Easter.

The second required celebration is [slide # 7 tabernacles] the Feast of
Tabernacles or Booths or Tents which was a festival of thanksgiving for God’s
provision of shelter as they wandered away from slavery toward the Promised
Land. Our Jewish neighbors celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in September or
October. [slide # 8 tent]
For some, the celebration includes building tents and booths in fields and
rooftops and spending the night in them to remember what it was like before God
blessed them to settle in a land of their own.

The third celebration commanded is a harvest festival. We
Christians call it Pentecost [slide
# 9 Pentecost] In the Old Testament it is called the Feast of Weeks or
in the Hebrew, Shavuot. There are 7 weeks or 49 days of preparing and waiting
for the harvest. It was a time of prayerfully and gratefully anticipating God’s
goodness and abundance. On the 50th day, there was a celebration.

These three festivals were designed by God that we might
understand and appreciate God and God’s people as a source of blessing. It was
a pleasant and good, to be with family and friends – well… for the most part.
It was a joy to eat good food and share laughter with the neighbors near and
far. God prescribes good fellowship because it is good for the mind, body, and
soul.

Today, many Christians, not all, but many, are celebrating
this day. My Baptist brother down the street is not celebrating Pentecost. Many Methodists, Episcopalians,
Lutherans, and Catholics often celebrate this day as Pentecost.

We Christians who celebrate are not celebrating just because
it is a day to give thanks for the blessings of the harvest. We celebrate
because of the extraordinary thing that God did on the particular day of
Pentecost that is described in chapter 2 of the book of Acts of the Apostles
that was read by our confirmands today. [slide # 10 the book of Acts]

Verse 1 of Acts 2 tells us that when the day of Pentecost
had come, they were all together in one place. [slide # 11 together in one place] The writer here
is emphasizing togetherness
and oneness for a reason. We
can assume that they were together for good reasons, for the most part.

Committed couples know well [ slide # 12 cuddly cats] the value of unity, for
unity and oneness lay a very strong
foundation during their courtship as they deepen their covenant together.
Committed Christians are united with one heart and mind. We are together as
often as we possibly can be. Because our love is solid and true, problems may
be solved, almost magically, or problems may cease to matter at all because the
fruit of our love is so great.

And if by chance one should fail to love another, [slide # 13 couple back to back]
God’s love never fails, so no one loses unless they choose to lose. God’s
greatest blessings come when we are together as one.

Verse 2 tells us that as this group of God’s children were together in one place, suddenly
from heaven there came a sound like the rush
of a violent wind.

Do you think God was frustrated that is why God snuck up on
them with a sudden and loud noise? Could God have been fed up with his people because
they had gotten so far off track from doing the right thing? We are made in God’s
image and when we look within
our hearts, our homes, our church, our neighborhood, our country, and our
world, don’t we see things that are godless and grimy, too?

The noise God sent was loud enough to make their ears perk
up. When we hear the wind howl, we too are on alert, recognizing that the next
sound we hear may be a trash can crashing to the ground or a tree limb
cracking. [slide # 14
trash can…] The scripture says they
heard the sound of a violent
wind; that is downright scary!

Verse 2 continues recording the incident saying, [slide #15 sound…filled…house] that sound
filled the house. There was no way to escape? It was as if God had cornered
them. The sound of a violent, rushing wind was inside! Fortunately
for them, they were sitting down as verse 2 tells us, otherwise they might have
fallen down. [slide # 16
…sitting…]

How intriguing that the writer of Acts of the Apostles would
tell us that those celebrating Pentecost that day were sitting. It brings to
mind how intentional the bible is with words. You may remember other places in
the bible where people sat.
Jesus sat at Jacob’s well and waited when the Samaritan woman came by and had a
little life-saving talk with Jesus. A crowd following Jesus sat down to eat and
a miracle happened, a miracle we talk about to this day. The prophet Isaiah
tells us that on the day that King Uzziah died he saw a vision of God sitting on a throne, high and
lifted up. The prophet got the clear and comforting message that God is in
control, even when it seems that all is lost and terrible things are about to
happen.

On this day of Pentecost, the people were sitting, resting
in God’s presence, eating, drinking and making merry, and God shook them up
something terrible.

They started speaking in other tongues. Maybe they liked their own tongue better than
the one that the text says was coming out of their mouth. Maybe they did not
want to be caught speaking like a proper Hebrew or Arab, but it was happening
anyway. Maybe they heard their best friends on the other side of the room talking
with the syntax and the enunciation and the accents of the same people they had
all made fun of together.

Now when we read the story of the Tower of Babel back in
Genesis, we get the idea that God did not like the idea of everyone speaking
the same language inasmuch as they were conniving with each other to reach
heaven.

In Acts, however, instead of God working to keep them from
speaking the same language, a
language that was evidently nonsense and babble to God, here God is, having his
children speak the language of the
other, of the people on the other
side of town where you did not want to go, the other people whose ways and
customs were other than their
own.

The power came from Heaven and they had no control over it.
The Holy Spirit was in control of
them. The people who came running to hear and see what was going on thought
God’s people were intoxicated with new wine, which according to New Testament
scholar Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, was the wine with the strongest percent of
alcohol.

Have you ever been so filled by the Holy Spirit that you
were out of control? [slide
# 17 Have you ever been filled I
mean out of control in a good way. The tears start flowing and you can’t stop them
to save your life. [slide
# 18 tears] You start clapping your hands and you don’t even want to
stop. You scream for joy until you lose your voice. [slide # 19 screaming] Have you ever been
so filled by the Spirit that as you started telling a spectacular story of
God’s goodness in your life your words stopped in midair and you were reduced
to bowing your head and muttering “mmm, mmm, mmm?” [ slide 20 head down] Some blessings are simply
inexpressible. Have you ever tried to pray about something and all you could
get out were sigh after sigh after sigh, sighs that Romans 8 describes as too
deep for words? [slide #
21 sigh]

We respond to God’s nudging in many different ways.Like the ancient church we may see things
differently [slide #
22two dresses]some see blue and black while others see
white and gold. We hear things differently. Some here “Yanny” some hear
“Laurel”. [slide # 23
Yanny/Laurel] But, if we sit together in one place, God will rush in to
help us harmonize with each other’s voices and languages. God will help us see
each other in ways that unite us and make us one!

On this day of Pentecost, their hearts were touched, their
minds were blown, they were deeply
moved, the words coming out of their mouth told of God’s wonderful deeds of
power and praises to God.Their tongues
were on fire with God’s love. [slide # 24 tongues of fire] There were no arguments, no
negativity, no backbiting, no silent treatment, no fear …nothing…. but words
that could do three things: (1) build someone up, (2) comfort them, and (3) encourage
them in the ways of holiness, just like I Corinthians 14 instructs us to do.

The fire of Pentecost that day represented the persistently
loving presence of God! This day the fire of God was neither contained in a warm,
cozy fireplace or an inspiring altar candle. God was not in God’s usual box.

God was present, but we can imagine that not everyone was
happy about God showing up at this celebration the way God chose to show up!

Perhaps they were more than satisfied to hear and say
something other than words that build others up, comfort or encourage. From
time to time, who among has not perked up an ear upon hearing some juicy gossip,
especially if it is about someone who has hurt our feelings or made us mad? Who
among us has not had to bite our tongue real hard to avoid saying cuss words or
back-stabbing words that neither glorify God but rather discourage? Who among
us has not consciously or unconsciously rubbed salt in another’s wounds or
pushed someone away when God was ready to teach us how to comfort them? Who
among us doesn’t want to be taught because we already know it all?

Certainly, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of
God. We are all a work in
progress, but when we obey God and come together
in one place, I guarantee
you, God will show up and God
will give us tongues of fire, full of words that change us, change our
churches, and change our world for the better. [slide # 25 Acts 2 Church] Amen. [slide #26 dog and cat]

About Me

What a blessing it has been to serve as Bethel's pastor these seven years! From a prayer gazebo, Kelsey's Bridge, and now increasing accessibility with ADA restrooms and an elevator, we are building together!! More importantly, many are readily sharing in worship the ways God is blessing our lives, building our faith and sense of community.
When two teens ask me for time to preach in worship, we know God is moving in our hearts.
The Spirit has been moving in my life since birth. I am one of generations of preachers. I was born and raised in Connecticut in a family of five. Our ancestral roots emerged from the Great Migration from the South in the 40's. I graduated from Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa. and Yale Divinity School before being ordained an elder in the United Methodist Church. I have worked as a social worker, an elementary and high school teacher, community college adjunct professor. God is so good!